An endangered North Atlantic right whale sighted during a NOAA Fisheries whale research flight. NOAA operates the stranding and response network that disentangles whales. (Photo courtesy of National Marine Fisheries Service)

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is the federal agency with
stewardship responsibility for our nation’s living marine resources.
The agency’s Woods Hole Laboratory conducts research on fisheries
resources and the fishermen who harvest them, and on marine mammals and
other protected resources in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Information
derived from this research is primarily used by those who make
management decisions about these resources and their habitats.

Created by Congress in 1871 as a summer sampling station, the
laboratory is the world’s oldest facility specifically dedicated to
marine fisheries research. It became a year-round institution in 1875,
and is currently part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries
Service.

Laboratory scientists are primarily interested in three broad areas of
researchresource assessment, ecosystem monitoring, and socioeconomics.
Resource assessment scientists determine the distribution, size, and
productivity of marine fish, shellfish, and marine mammal populations,
as well as the effects of fishing and other human activities on those
populations. Ecosystem monitoring scientists investigate the role that
natural or nonhuman factors (such as climate change and food web
dynamics) play in marine populations and the overall ecosystem.
Socioeconomic scientists study the social, economic, and cultural
effects of fisheries and marine mammal management on coastal
communities in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. Fieldwork by
laboratory scientists is supported by two research vessels, the
190-foot Albatross IV and the 160-foot Delaware II.

The Laboratory employs about 175 natural and social scientists,
technicians, and administrators. It also houses the Woods Hole Science
Aquarium, which annually receives more than 150,000 visitors, including
several thousand students on science field trips.

The Laboratory further serves as headquarters for NMFS’s Northeast
Fisheries Science Center, which coordinates research not only at the
Woods Hole Laboratory, but also at four other laboratories in the
Northeast (Narragansett, RI; Milford, CT; Highlands, NJ; and
Washington, DC). These other laboratories conduct research on marine
ecosystem health, aquaculture, habitat conservation, and biodiversity.